When Life Throws Us A Curve

When troubles come and problems arise in my life, I often turn to the encouraging passage in Romans 8:35, where Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

In asking these questions, Paul summarizes his ministry.

He endured trials for the promotion of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4), seeing through the eye of faith (2 Corinthians 4:17-18; cf.  Hebrews 11:13,27), that “these things” (Romans 8:37), though perhaps not good in and of themselves, could be used by God to accomplish "good" (Romans 8:28).

He had learned to see past the hardships, trials and persecutions, to a loving God who will one day bestow on us that crown of eternal life (2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12).

He continues, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, [nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Beloved, this kind of confidence can go a long way in helping us overcome any kind of discouragement, especially the discouragement that comes when life throws us a curve, and we see how things haven’t quite worked out the way we thought they would.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets